Islands in history and representation

Bibliographic Information

Islands in history and representation

edited by Rod Edmond and Vanessa Smith

(Routledge research in postcolonial literatures, 6)

Routledge, 2003

  • : pbk

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. [207]-223) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Volume

ISBN 9780415286664

Description

This innovative collection of essays explores the ways in which islands have been used, imagined and theorised, both by island dwellers and continentals. This study considers how island dwellers conceived of themselves and their relation to proximate mainlands, and examines the fascination that islands have long held in the European imagination. The collection addresses the significance of islands in the Atlantic economy of the eighteenth century, the exploration of the Pacific, the important role played by islands in the process of decolonisation, and island-oriented developments in postcolonial writing. Islands were often seen as natural colonies or settings for ideal communities but they were also used as dumping grounds for the unwanted, a practice which has continued into the twentieth century. The collection argues the need for an island-based theory within postcolonial studies and suggests how this might be constructed. Covering a historical span from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, the contributors include literary and postcolonial critics, historians and geographers.

Table of Contents

Rod Edmond and Vanessa Smith Introduction 1. John R. Gillis Taking History Offshore: Islands and Continents in the Eighteenth Century Atlantic World 2. Gillian Beer Island Bounds 3. Markman Ellis 'The Cane-Land Isles': Commerce and Empire in Late Eighteenth Century Georgic and Pastoral Poetry 4. Deirdre Coleman Bulama and Sierra Leone: Utopian Islands and Visionary Interiors 5. Vanessa Agnew Pacific Island Encounters and the German Invention of Race 6. Harriet Guest Cook in Tonga: Terms of Trade 7. Vanessa Smith Pitcairn's 'Guilty Stock': The Island as Breeding Ground 8. Rod Edmond Islands of Disease: Colonialism and Leprosy 9. Roger Moss Derek Walcott's Omeros: Representing St. Lucia, Re-presenting Homer 10. Francoise Verges The Island of Wandering Souls: Processes of Creolization, Politics of Emancipation and the Problematic of Absence on Reunion Island 11. Klaus Dodds God Save the Falklands: Postcolonial Geographies of the Falklands/Malvinas 12. Elizabeth McMahon The Gilded Cage: From Utopia to Monad in Australia's Island Imaginary Greg Dening Afterword
Volume

: pbk ISBN 9780415418577

Description

This innovative collection of essays explores the ways in which islands have been used, imagined and theorised, both by island dwellers and continentals. This study considers how island dwellers conceived of themselves and their relation to proximate mainlands, and examines the fascination that islands have long held in the European imagination. The collection addresses the significance of islands in the Atlantic economy of the eighteenth century, the exploration of the Pacific, the important role played by islands in the process of decolonisation, and island-oriented developments in postcolonial writing. Islands were often seen as natural colonies or settings for ideal communities but they were also used as dumping grounds for the unwanted, a practice which has continued into the twentieth century. The collection argues the need for an island-based theory within postcolonial studies and suggests how this might be constructed. Covering a historical span from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, the contributors include literary and postcolonial critics, historians and geographers.

Table of Contents

List of figures -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Editors' introduction -- 1 Taking history offshore: Atlantic islands in European minds, 1400-1800 /JOHN R. GILLIS -- 2 Island bounds /GILLIAN BEER -- 3 The cane-land isles': commerce and empire in late eighteenthcentury georgic and pastoral poetry /MARKMAN ELLIS -- 4 Bulama and Sierra Leone: utopian islands and visionary interiors /DEIRDRE COLEMAN -- 5 Pacific island encounters and the German invention of race /VANESSA AGNEW -- 6 Cook in Tonga: terms of trade /HARRIET GUEST -- 7 Pitcairn's 'guilty stock': the island as breeding ground /VANESSA SMITH -- 8 Abject bodies / abject sites: leper islands in the high imperial era /ROD EDMOND -- 9 Derek Walcott's Omeros: representing St Lucia, re-presenting Homer /ROGER MOSS -- 10 The island of wandering souls: processes of creolisation, politics of emancipation and the problematic of absence on Reunion Island /FRANQOISE VERGES -- 11 God save the Falklands: postcolonial geographies of the Falklands /Malvinas /KLAUS DODDS -- 12 The gilded cage: from utopia to monad in Australia's island Imaginary /ELIZABETH MCMAHON -- 13 Afterword /GREG DENING -- Bibliography -- Index.

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